Ohio County, West Virginia      Biography of Roy Benton NAYLOR

This biography was submitted by Kerry Armour,
E-mail address:  <cmac4330@chesapeake.net>

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg.68

ROY BENTON NAYLOR. Perhaps no other name has been more steadily
identified with the commercial history and development of the City
of Wheeling since the middle of the past century than that of Naylor.
One of the largest wholesale houses in the Ohio Valley is the John
S. Naylor Company. Roy Benton Naylor is a son of the founder and for
many years active head of this business, and while he chose a distinct
field of enterprise he has for a number of years been recognized as
one of West Virginia's ablest and most public spirited citizens,
having gained a great deal of prominence during his long connection
with the Wheeling and West Virginia Boards of Trade.

Mr. Naylor was born at Wheeling, July 22, 1871. His family has been
in this section of the Ohio Valley considerably more than a century.
His great-grandfather was John Naylor, who was born near Baltimore,
Maryland, of Quaker stock and English ancestry. He settled in Ohio
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and his occupation was
that of a farmer. The grandfather of Roy Naylor was Joseph R. Naylor,
who was born in Ohio in 1817 and in 1848 moved to Wellsburg, West
Virginia. He became a merchant, and under appointment from President
Cleveland was serving as postmaster of Wellsburg when he died in 1887.
He was a democrat, and a member of the Christian Church and the Masonic
fraternity. Joseph R. Naylor married Hester Kimberland, who was born
in Ohio in 1817 and died at Wellsburg in 1887, having been born and
having died in the same years as her husband.

The late John S. Naylor was born at Pennsville in Morgan County, Ohio,
in 1843, and was about five years of age when his parents moved to
Wellsburg, where he grew up and acquired the greater part of his
education. He attended the old West Liberty Academy, and in 1869,
as a young man, moved to Wheeling. In later years his mercantile
activities developed into the John S. Naylor Company, one of the
largest wholesale dry goods houses in the state. He was for many
years its active executive head, and gave his time to the business
until his death in 1916. His citizenship in every sense was thoroughly
constructive. He served on the city council and school board, was one
of West Virginia's commissioners to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893,
and was also interested in democratic politics, serving several years
as chairman of the County Committee of Ohio County. He was a member
of the Christian Church and the Masonic fraternity. John S. Naylor
married Anna Wendelken, who was born at Marietta, Ohio, in 1853, and
is still living at Wheeling. Roy Benton is the oldest of four children.
His brothers have all had an active part in the business founded by
their father. Allen Gerd died at Wheeling in 1918. The other sons are
Joseph R. and Wilson, Joseph being the present executive head of the
John S. Naylor Company.

Roy Benton Naylor attended the public schools, Linsly Institute, and
Marietta College in Ohio. He left college in his sophomore year and
was first attracted into the newspaper profession and was connected
with the Wheeling News for some years. Mr. Naylor founded the Wheeling
Telegraph, selling that paper in 1904.

In 1905 he was elected secretary of the Board of Trade of Wheeling.
He held that office ten years, and during the greater part of that
time the power of the Board of Trade and its affiliated organizations
was largely exercised through the executive abilities of Mr. Naylor.
Shortly after he was elected secretary of the Wheeling board he
organized the West Virginia Board of Trade, and was its secretary
for ten years. After carrying these official burdens so long he
resigned in the fall of 1915 to take up the insurance business with
the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, and is now district agent
for the Wheeling District, with offices in the National Bank of West
Virginia Building. In 1917 he was president of the West Virginia Life
Underwriters Association and is still a director of the association.

Mr. Naylor departs somewhat from the family tradition in the matter
of politics, being a republican, though he has not sought prominence
in partisan politics, but rather in public matters permitting
opportunities for constructive work, particularly in affairs of
community benefit. He was a member of the city council in 1901-02,
was park and playground commissioner in 1912, and since 1921 has
been on the City Recreation Commission. Mr. Naylor lives at Woodsdale,
where he completed his beautiful modern home in 1919. He was mayor of
Woodsdale three years, until that community was consolidated with
Wheeling in 1919. He is a member of the Christian Church, the Wheeling
Chamber of Commerce, Wheeling Country Club, Fort Henry Club, Twilight
Club and Rotary Club. He is a director of the Community Savings and
Loan Company, director of the Wheeling Savings & Loan Association, a
director of the Associated Charities and a trustee of Marietta College,
for which he received the honorary degree of A. M. in 1912. During
the war he was a "Four-Minute" speaker, and was chairman of the
Publicity Committee for all the Liberty Loan, Red Cross and other
drives.

January 15, 1902, at Bridgeport, Ohio, Mr. Naylor married Miss Nancy
Dent, daughter of James C. and Millie (Clayton) Dent, now residents
of Los Angeles. Her father is a retired merchant. Mrs. Naylor is a
graduate of Mount de Chantal Academy of Wheeling. They have one son,
John S., Jr., born March 28, 1906.